


Somebody Loves Me (Maybe it's You)

by spirallings



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6208636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spirallings/pseuds/spirallings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The cracks of a fine-tuned radio could sometimes be heard from Bunker Nine, a blue-eyed crooner singing gently in the earth.</p>
<p>(circa 2013)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somebody Loves Me (Maybe it's You)

Whenever Nico stepped out of the shadows and into Bunker Nine to watch his boyfriend work on whatever machine was his current project, Leo would just ever so casually tune the knob on the radio to a station full of music from the 30s and 40s. He would never say anything aside from giving him a few side glances, but Leo knew that Nico loved it.

Leo himself was more into classic and contemporary rock, but even he couldn’t help but hum along to the croons and sighs that Nico was once quite familiar with the more he fixed the radio for the son of Hades.

Seeing the little smile that was forming on Nico’s lips as he closed his eyes, listening to the music while he watched his boyfriend work, made it all the more worthwhile.

He remembered the way Nico’s eyes suddenly lit up when Old Blue Eyes crooned through the radio, gleaming with recognition and delight.

It was out of his mouth before he could stop himself, “Wait, you know who Sinatra is?”

Nico’d given him the most deadpan, ‘are you stupid’ look yet. He sighed and gave the mechanic a wry look, taking the strap of one of his suspenders, pulled it and let it fall back against Leo’s back, making a small, harmless little smacking sound. Leo gave a little yelp and an exaggerated pout, to which Nico rolled his eyes.

“Leo,  _really_ , Sinatra was a pretty big deal even then. Of course I knew who he was. You’d have to be living under a rock to not know who he was.”

For all his exasperation, that little light in Nico’s eyes didn’t leave and the corner of his mouth was twitching upwards.  
  
  
Leo gave him a cheeky grin and leaned forward, noses only inches away from each other.

“Don’t you technically live under a rock anyway?”

Nico gave him a light shove and told him to shut up, albeit half-heartedly, and Leo just laughed it off; the little flush that’d formed on the younger male’s cheeks was just too damn cute. Teasing the dark-haired male was just far too easy. When he couldn’t stop laughing, Nico decided to shut him up another way. Specifically, he grabbed Leo by the suspenders and pulled him forward into a kiss that smothered his laughter. For the next couple of hours, the machine that Leo’d been working on was left abandoned on the work table.

Nico tried to listen to the kind of music that Leo preferred on his own time, but much of it was too loud for his tastes, though he did find himself enjoying the softer songs. He wasn’t blind to the fact that Leo would always tune the radio to something that he was more comfortable and familiar with, and while it made something in his chest swell with warmth, it made him feel a little bad that Leo wouldn’t listen to the music  _he_  liked while working.

One afternoon, as Leo was tuning the radio to the 30s/40s station, he caught the sudden frown that formed on Nico’s lips and the slightly downtrodden look on his face. His grin slipped a little and he leaned over to lift Nico’s chin gently with his fingers.

“Hey.”

After a small pause, still unused to actually letting other people touch him, Nico lifted his eyes to look back into warm golden-brown. Leo smiled.

“None of that face, okay?”

Nico’s brows furrowed. “But-”

Leo shushed him, pressing two of his fingers against Nico’s lips, effectively shutting him up and making the other male give him an incredulous look, which he gracefully ignored.

“Ah, ah, ah, what’d I say, Nico-baby,” he started, ignoring the scowl forming against his fingers at the pet-name. “None of that face. Don’t go feeling bad about something so small. ‘Sides, I’ve grown to like it almost as much as you do.”

Nico’s dark brown eyes narrowed slightly at Leo’s face, but the other male just stared back at him, not a trace of falsities on his face. He started to relax, his face darkening with a red flush and Leo’s smile widened.

“All right, fine,” he mumbled. Then he lifted his hand to Leo’s, moving it off of his lips. “Now get your hand off my mouth already, it’s probably gross and covered in oil.” Leo’s mouth broke into a grin and he began to open his mouth– “And don’t you  _dare_  turn that into some kind of sexual innuendo.”

The grin fell into a pout and Leo muttered ‘killjoy’ under his breath, but then he clasped his fingers over Nico’s as the dark-haired male pulled it away and gave a little squeeze of his hand. His brown eyes twinkled as he leaned in forward and grinned wickedly.

“Well, then,” he purred, waggling his eyebrows for emphasis, “I’ll take you to the limit if you show me your end behavior.”

“Oh my _gods_.”

In his off time, when his hands weren’t occupied with working on something in Bunker Nine or attending to head counselor things, Leo found himself tuning the radio to the 30s/40s station even when Nico wasn’t around. He’d initially done it for his boyfriend’s sake and comfort and wouldn’t listen to it that much outside of when Nico was there, but after a few weeks, he had several Sinatra, Fitzgerald and Holiday songs memorized and found himself humming them under his breath.

Leo would also find himself tapping his foot to the beat of the faster-paced songs as he worked. He didn’t even notice it until Jason pointed it out to him with a knowing smile on his face, after which, he couldn’t help but notice it.

Eventually, Nico took notice of his boyfriend’s new habit and pointed it out with a wry smile. He gave a small laugh at how Leo’s elfish ears turned a light shade of red when caught in the act the first time. He didn’t mind it, though, he’d said with a shy peck on the cheek. He thought it was kind of cute. The flush on Leo’s face spread all the way to his ear tips and a goofy smile spread on his lips.

Then Nico was caught between sheer panic and hysterical laughter when Leo’s eyebrows caught fire.

Some time after that, and once Leo’d patted the flames out before he could give Nico a heart attack, the pair were lounging in the bunker. By his side and leaning over his shoulder a little, Nico watched Leo tweak and wire a miniature, gold Festus-lookalike. Leo made a big show of yawning and trying to wrap his greasy arm over Nico’s shoulders, to which the son of Hades rolled his eyes and batted it away. But he was smiling and that’s what mattered to Leo.

The radio played quietly in the background, alternating between sweet, soft piano ballads, trumpets, the sax and fast pace of swing, crackling record noises from age. All of it seemed to help Nico relax, and Leo soon felt a shoulder pressing into his arm and the weight of Nico’s head against his shoulder. Leo gave a small grin to himself and continued to work on the figurine, happily answering Nico’s questions about what he was doing, how, and how it worked.

The volume was on a moderate level, but the blast of sudden trumpets rang through the bunker and Nico jolted a little against Leo, blinking rapidly and sitting up straighter. Then that familiar voice crooned out of the radio and the corners of Nico’s eyes crinkled as he relaxed.

It was a song that Leo’d heard often on this particular station, enough that he had it almost completely memorized and his foot tapped to the beat of the song as he worked. Feeling Nico relax against him, he looked down to find the Italian’s fingers tapping his knee to the song’s rhythm, following Sinatra’s every word. By the relaxed look on his face, he didn’t seem to be aware that he was doing it at all.

Leo’s eyes flickered up and down from Nico’s hands to his relaxed expression and his eyes took on a mischievous glint. A wide, toothy grin broke out on his face. His screwdriver gave a soft ‘clink’ against the worktable.

Nico’s brow furrowed when he felt Leo’s shoulder move away against him. “What is it-?” He didn’t get to finish asking when he felt a warm hand grasp his wrist and pull him up.

“Leo!” He yelped, nearly tripping over his own feet. His brows furrowed into a confused glare. “What’re you doing–?!”

Leo held onto the hand in his own in a firm hold and placed his other palm on the small of Nico’s back. His grin grew wider at the red dust on Nico’s nose and cheeks.

Nico’s brows only furrowed further. “Seriously, Leo! What–  _Uwoh!_ ”

Leo’s teeth were pearly white in his toothy grin while Nico stumbled and nearly tripped over his own feet again as he suddenly tugged the other boy close, taking a step backwards and taking Nico with him.

“ _Every girl who passes by, I shout–_ ”

Nico’s jaw dropped slightly.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he breathed.

“ _Hey, maybe you were meant to be my lovin’ baby!_ ”

“You’re not serious, you cannot actually be serious right now,” Nico groaned, feeling heat spread all the way to the tips of his ears as Leo pulled him along. When he tried to wriggle out of his grip, Leo’s hold tightened and pulled his boyfriend flush against him.

Leo’s grin only widened at Nico’s indignant glare.

“ _You were meant to be my baby~_ ”

He gave an exaggerated, lascivious wink and Nico groaned, his face growing hotter.

“Why did I have to pick a boyfriend who’s such a cheese-ball?” He muttered none-too loudly. Nico yelped when Leo swerved, swinging to the side along to the rhythm of the music with a twist of his feet, keeping a firm hold on the other male.

“ _Somebody loves me, I wonder who!_ ”

Nico frowned hard at Leo’s wide dorky grin even as he felt the flush run all the way down to his neck. “You’re not even singing it on-key!”

Leo continued on as if he hadn’t heard and continued to pull Nico along in a clumsy swing dance as he sang to the lyrics playing on the radio. His voice was loud, off-key and cracked at certain syllables and notes that his range couldn’t quite reach and it made Nico’s face flush with severe secondhand embarrassment.

Nico wanted nothing more than to bury his thoroughly reddened face in his hands when Leo’s voice cracked on a certain note, making his own tanned skin flush, but that didn’t stop the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a smile. If anything, it just made Leo’s grin grow impossibly wider.

The fact that while Nico was perfectly capable of getting himself out of Leo’s hold, he didn’t certainly helped. Red-faced, mortified and all, Nico didn’t pull away from him.

Leo gently squeezed the calloused hand in his own. It squeezed back.

When the song started to come to a close, Leo smiled wide and dipped Nico down low, palm firm on the small of his back. Nico made a startled noise when he lost his footing and his grip on Leo’s shoulder tightened, but the warm hand on his back kept him in place.

Wide dark eyes looked into twinkling brown.

“ _Somebody loves me, I just wonder who!_ ”

Leo leaned in close until the tips of their noses just barely close. Nico’s breath hitched and his grip on Leo’s hand tightened. Leo’s smile widened.

“ _Or maybe, maybe, maybe it’s you._ ”

His breath was warm on Nico’s lips. A small tingle ran down the length of his spine.

The song was over but Leo still had Nico dipped down, with Nico’s feet just barely in position to keep him from falling to the floor and hand fastened tight to Leo’s shoulder, but Leo had him covered.

The pair stared at each other for a long time before Nico breathed and pressed his forehead against Leo’s, giving it a little bop.

“You’re such a sap,” he snarked. The tips of his ears were a bright red.

Leo’s grin was smug. “You like it.”

“Shut up, Valdez.”

Leo’s snickers were smothered when Nico’s hand planted itself at the back of his head and pushed him forward into a kiss.


End file.
